Minerva's Owl : The Tradition of Western Political Thought

by Abramson, Jeffrey B.

• ISBN13: 9780674032651
• ISBN10: 0674032659
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-30
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

Informal in tone yet serious in content, this book serves as a lively and accessible guide for readers discovering the tradition of political thought that dates back to Socrates and Plato. Because the arguments of the great philosophers are nearly eternal, even those long schooled on politics will find that this book calls on recurring questions about morality and power, justice and war, the risk of democracy, the necessity for evil, the perils of tolerance, and the meaning of happiness. Jeffrey Abramson argues politics with the classic writers and draws the reader into a spirited conversation with contemporary examples that illustrate the enduring nature of political dilemmas. As the discussions deepen, the voices of Abramsonrs"s own teachers, and of the students he has taught, enter into the mix, and the book becomes a tribute not just to the great philosophers but also to the special bond between teacher and student.As Hegel famously noted, referring to the Roman goddess Minerva, her owl brought back wisdom only at dusk, when it was too late to shine light on actual politics. Abramson reminds us that there are real political problems to confront, and in a book filled with grace and passion, he captures just how exciting serious learning can be.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Canon of Political Thought	p. 1
Plato's Republic: The Debate over Justice Begins	p. 17
The Students Revolt against Utopia	p. 36
Out of the Cave and into the Light-and Back Again?	p. 61
Beyond Plato's Tragic Republic	p. 83
Aristotle's Ethics: The Habits of Virtue	p. 87
Aristotle's Politics: Severed Hands and Political Animals	p. 105
Augustine and the Problem of Evil	p. 126
Machiavelli's Dirty Hands	p. 145
Hobbes and the Kingdom of Means	p. 169
Locke, Liberalism, and the Possessive Life	p. 197
Rousseau and the Rustic	p. 222
Rousseau and the Political	p. 243
Kant's Crooked Timber	p. 258
John Stuart Mill and the Demands of Individuality	p. 279
Hegel, Marx, and the Owl of Minerva	p. 301
The Revival of Political Theory	p. 322
Conclusion: The Passion for Politics	p. 345
Notes	p. 353
Acknowledgments	p. 377
Index	p. 379
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